India’s external debt rises 2.2 percent in 2015-16

New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) With a rise in long term debt particularly NRI deposits, India’s external debt stock rose by 2.2 percent to $485.6 billion by end of last fiscal, an official report said on Monday.

According to “India’s External Debt: A Status Report 2015-16” prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs of Union Ministry of Finance, the external debt, in absolute term, rose by $10.6 billion by end of March 2016 over the same level previous year.

“At end-March 2016, long-term external debt was $402.2 billion, showing an increase of 3.3 per cent over the level of 2015 (end-March). Long-term external debt accounted for 82.8 per cent of total external debt at end-March 2016 as compared to 82 per cent at end-March 2015,” a statement said.

The report said the short-term external debt declined by 2.5 per cent from $84.7 billion at end-March 2015 to $83.4 billion at end-March 2016.

“This was mainly due to the decline in trade related credits. The share of short-term external debt in total external debt declined from 18 per cent at end-March 2015 to 17.2 per cent at end-March 2016,” it said.

The share of Government external debt in total external debt was 18.9 per cent at end-March 2016 vis-a-vis 18.8 per cent at end-March 2015.

According to a government note, India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits in 2015-16 as indicated by the increase in foreign exchange reserves to debt ratio to 74.2 per cent, the external debt-GDP ratio of 23.7 per cent, and fall in short term debt to 17.2 per cent.